The Classroom of Tomorrow #edtech

On the face of it it’s a good and well presented demonstration about how mobile or modern technology can be used in classrooms .. but this is what disappointed me:

The student at the start is using his device in the classroom. While this is obviously the point of the video I would have thought that the classroom of tomorrow has no walls, no boundaries – so this student could have been anywhere (school, library, friends house, cafe, home, gym, bus-stop, beach, car, etc.).

The students in the gym are doing nothing and looking bored while their instructor works something out on his phone. A good instructor would have had them warming up or doing something before getting the device out, and not let them sit around?

An opportunity was missed with the boy at home swiping apps on his patio doors – instead of looking at the weather what else could he have been doing more relevant to learning? He could have been shown accessing the VLE, a reading list, eBook, etc. Admittedly he was then shown accessing what looks to be the class blog.

The teacher who is walking around the classroom with his tablet is looking at something, presumably student work and/or student grades. But look again, in the background … no technology in the classroom, students in groups with no viewable or discernible devices?

With the video ending with the text “the future belongs to those who prepare for it today” (which I like and agree with), it’s a shame that one things was missing from this vision (as highlighted in the comment by ‘hosk127’ on YouTube) “real and authentic human interactions. I observed a lot of students and teachers alike staring at devices or media screens, but no interactions with one another.”

Technology cannot replace learning, it should be used (appropriately) to enhance it, yes?

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“students and teachers alike staring at devices or media screens, but no interactions with one another” – sadly that seems the modus vivendi for a growing group of people these days. People sitting next to each other sending mails to each other Alienation is a danger and the effects of further digitizing education should be monitored I think.

The film was made for “Edmonton Catholic Schools Film Festival” and the makers wanted to propose some yet “unrealistic” ideas – with special effects that make the audience wonder what is real and not.